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Commission to look at the harmonisation of blood alcohol concentration limits within the EU

To help reduce traffic accidents, new cars, trucks and buses should be equipped with driver assistance systems, transport MEPs say in a draft resolution voted on Thursday.

“More than 90 percent of all road accidents are due to human error. In order to enhance road safety we need to make certain driver assistance systems for new cars mandatory as soon as possible, said rapporteur Dieter-Lebrecht Koch (EPP, DE).

“However, to ensure that road safety does not depend on EU citizens’ wallets, we suggest that only those driver assistance systems should be mandatory which make a genuine contribution to road safety and have already attained market maturity, like for example the automatic emergency braking systems with pedestrian and cyclist detection,” he added.

MEPs want compulsory installation of “overridable” speed assistance and lane keeping assistance systems and emergency breaking systems, which can detect pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. There should also be incentives to boost retrofitting, they add.

51 percent of all fatal road accident victims in urban areas are pedestrians and cyclists, MEPs say, and call EU countries to address critical hotspots for accidents with vulnerable road users and build safe cycle and pedestrian infrastructure. Cities should include targets for reducing the number of accidents in their mobility plans.

For trucks, buses and coaches front, side and rear cameras and turning assistant systems should be made compulsory and design standards should be improved to boost drivers’ direct vision, MEPs say.

They also want the Commission to assess the possible added value of harmonising the blood alcohol concentration limits to 0.0% for new drivers for the first two years and for professional drivers and urge the use of alcohol interlocks for professional drivers and repeat offenders.

Next steps

The draft resolution now needs to be voted by the full house of the Parliament.

Disclaimer: This is an informal message intended to help journalists covering the work of the European Parliament. It is neither an official press release nor a comprehensive record of proceedings.